


Ite, missa est

by toli-a (togina)



Category: Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: 1920s, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-12
Updated: 2016-11-12
Packaged: 2019-09-16 16:30:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16957542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/togina/pseuds/toli-a
Summary: “I’m sick,” Steve declared, sniffling dramatically.  It was probably true, after all.  He was generally sick—the doctors kept saying so, and two weeks ago at Christmas his Ma had refused to let Bucky drag him out into the snow.





	Ite, missa est

**Author's Note:**

> Long ago promised fluff for itstheclimb, posted on AO3 now that tumblr is imploding.

“I’m sick,” Steve declared, sniffling dramatically.  It was probably true, after all.  He was generally sick—the doctors kept saying so, and two weeks ago at Christmas his Ma had refused to let Bucky drag him out into the snow.

“You’re not sick,” Sarah Rogers replied, rolling her eyes (though she pressed her wrist to his forehead, just to be sure, because Steve’s thin face was always a little flushed, an Irish complexion and the temper to boot).

“’Course he is,” Bucky disagreed, having ducked away from his Mam and his baby sisters early that morning, still only half-buttoned into his coat and with one boot unlaced.  He edged further inside, kicking his bookbag toward the door and hopefully out of Mrs. Rogers’s sight.  “He _looks_ sick,” he added, nodding his head solemnly like Dr. Parker always did when they had to call him to the Rogerses' home.

“Thanks, pal,” Steve muttered, and stuck out his tongue at Bucky when his Ma turned her glare from her son to his best friend.  “You look like the back end of a –”

“Do _not_ finish that sentence, Steven Grant Rogers,” his Ma interrupted, still facing away from him to glare at Bucky.  “And put your tongue back in your mouth, lad, before I tell the Sisters to keep you after school writing lines.”

Steve straightened up and nearly swallowed his tongue, he pulled it in so fast.  Though he almost stuck it right back out when Bucky smirked at him, blue eyes bright under a curly fringe of brown hair that had gone too long without a trim.

“No one is sick!” Mrs. Rogers announced, throwing up her hands and aiming a light swat at Bucky’s smirk.  “And you’ve just had two weeks off from school—why, three days ago you couldn’t wait to get back!”

“That was _Becky_ ,” Bucky said darkly, because no doubt Rebecca Barnes was already sitting in her desk, her skirt tucked neatly around her knees and a pencil in her chubby hand.  “I couldn’t wait for Father O’Malley to say –” Bucky puffed up and lowered his voice, failing to look at all like their round old priest. “- _Ite, missa est_ , so we can _gratias_ and go get lunch.”

“James Buchanan Barnes!” Steve declared at the same time as his mother, folding his arms and imitating his Ma’s scandalized tone.  He paused, and matched Bucky’s grin.  “Don’t be blasphemous.  Even God couldn’t make Father O’Malley finish a mass before lunch.”

His mother’s hand came down firmly across Steve’s behind, but since he was already wearing three long sweaters and his woolen coat he could barely tell.

“That’s it,” Sarah Rogers told them, biting down at the smile curling her lips.  “The next time Sister Mary twists your ears, don’t expect any pity from me.  Now go on,” she snapped, bending down to tie Bucky’s boot laces, because he still got his fingers trapped in the knot when he tried.  “Get to school!”

Both boys groaned, but Bucky grabbed the handkerchief that Steve always forgot and retrieved his bookbag from where it lay next to the door, while Steve pulled his off the table and grunted when the weight of it nearly toppled him.

“We’ll stop for peppermints,” Bucky whispered, once they were almost out the door and Mrs. Rogers couldn’t hear.  “We can tell Sister Mary that you got sick on –”

“You can tell her that you’ll be _on time_ tomorrow!” Steve’s Ma cut him off, one hand resting threateningly above Bucky’s ear, and Steve nearly fell down the stairs laughing at the terror on his best friend’s face.

They were late to school, but Steve hung on Bucky’s shoulder and coughed loudly, and Sister Mary didn’t say a word.


End file.
